I've always liked Rain Kings but have never owned one.  I can't imagine there's a whole lot that can go wrong with them, but others here may know if there's anything to watch out for.

I'm not familiar with Dramm.  I'll bet an old Rain King is the better performer of the two.

So far this season I've been able to get away with almost no lawn irrigation, and the lawn in our back yard is still green.  It helps that we haven't had many days above 80 yet.  The front lawn is another story, but it has had issues for several years.  This wasn't the year to try and repair it.   I'm crossing my fingers that with reduced irrigation and capturing warm-up water and gray water that I'll meet the mandatory 25% usage cut the state has imposed.  We have a long dry summer ahead.

Had a couple too when growing up. 

I stopped by an estate sale on a whim today.  There wasn't anything of interest inside the house, but I found a Rain King model K2 sitting by itself out in the back yard.  Price:  $3.

This one is the '40s vintage with large bolt on the bottom.  Probably late '40s, as the housing tract dates back to around 1949.  I'm sure it was the first sprinkler purchased for that home.  The sprinkler body was loose on the base so I found a gasket for a P-trap connector that fit perfectly.  It might be thicker than necessary, but it did the trick.  Loosening the bolt took some coaxing with a large socket wrench and a couple of shots of PB blaster.

Arcturus mentioned above that "If the sprinkler pops up and stalls, it's toast."  This sprinkler of mine might be headed in that direction.  I noted that the area adjustment knob on the top turns the arms for a horizontal spray direction at the 5 setting, and from there each higher increment turns the arms upward until they are positioned for vertical spray at the 50 setting.

With basic physics in play here, when the knob is set to 5, the arms on my Rain King spin rapidly.  When set to 50, it pops up but doesn't spin.  It will spin reliably at the 35 setting, but 40 is iffy.  It makes sense that spinning isn't as easy with the spray holes aimed vertically as opposed to horizontally.

So are the bearings going or does the sprinkler perhaps just need some exercise?  Maybe a little of both?  I think it may have been sitting for a long period, since I presume it would have spewed water out of the large gap between the body and the base without a gasket in place.

I may only use this if the grandkids want to come over on a hot day.  Probably not this summer, but once we're past this current drought and restrictions on water use have been lifted.

Yeah, ebay has become a haven for overpriced merchandise.  It's a matter of paying for the convenience of finding what you want with just a few clicks.  There's one on Etsy for $21 + change that looks low mileage and I saw another on ebay for $19 that looked low miles too, but it had a broken knob, although that wouldn't impact operation.

I just happened to be cruising through the CL appliance section using key search terms and the listing for this estate sale nearby popped up.  As is always the case, I didn't go there on a sprinkler hunt, but one turned up. 

For serious use, you'll be better off finding one that you can be certain is in proper working order, and neither of the Etsy or ebay items have been tested.  After testing my RK yesterday I can assure you that they really throw the water around and distribute it evenly over the entire area to be irrigated.  It's one of the more versatile and effective sprinklers I've ever used.   Some serious thought went into its design.

I'd love to see pictures of those 1936 sprinkler heads.  My house was built in 1927 and still has its original in-ground system out front.  Over the years, the original heads gradually were replaced for various reasons.  Due to exposure, by the 1960s the finish on them had deteriorated to the point that they appeared to be made of molded concrete, and they would often break into pieces when trying to remove them with a wrench. 

I can't find anything on line about them and nothing is ever listed on ebay, but I'm fairly certain they were made by Thompson.  I have a '60s vintage Thompson head that has developed a similar concrete look to it.

Water pressure isn't the greatest here, so that could be part of the problem. 

I'm not going to use my Rain King for regular irrigation anyway, so it's OK as is.